Give students free entry to tourist sites

The Head of the Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship of the Ghana Baptist University College (GBUC) in Kumasi, Mr Peter Sarpong, has appealed to the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) to offer free services, especially to students to promote domestic tourism.

According to him, the authority could open some of its tourist attractions to students for free on occasions such as World Tourism Day as a way of promoting these sites.

Mr Sarpong was speaking at a debate organised by the Ashanti regional office of the GTA for students of the GBUC as part of activities to mark this year’s World Tourism Day which fell on Thursday, September 27.

It was on the theme: “Tourism and Digital Transformation” and the debate topic of whether digital marketing was better than traditional marketing in promoting tourism fell right in line.

Mr Sarpong said although the country had a lot of tourism attractions, there was still a lot to be done to get Ghanaians to patronise them and for him, the GTA could ignite the love for domestic tourism by using students.

For his part, the regional manager of the GTA, Mr Peter Theophilus Achampong, said the authority helped schools to form tourism Clubs where the members were given special discounts whenever they visited any tourism facility.

He said the Authority was also trying to extend the formation of the tourism clubs to tertiary institutions so as to sustain the interest of students in tourism.
Mr Achampong said it did not take much to visit a tourist site and asked Ghanaians to disabuse their minds of the perception that tourism was only for the rich.

The students who took part in the debate were presented with certificates of participation.